Kerry Airport - News & Updates

Did the Ryanair flight to Dublin twice in the last month or so. Most of my business is in the city centre. It’s just easier to do the train, the hassle of getting up to the airport and queuing just means the train makes more sense, Not to mention the trek to the Ryanair gates

I’ve used to visit family- times suit me as don’t want to be up at crack of dawn. €20 return is brilliant and don’t fancy the 4 hr driving or train. A quick overnight and back to Kerry the next day. Know others who go to college in Dublin and find it handy

I suppose horses for courses.

Not Kerry Airport, but I've seen someone on twitter talking of how they sometimes get the Donegal flight to Dublin to get to college in DCU! Takes them 2:30-3 hours in total (from door to door).

I live in County Dublin and make the trip monthly by car and I've often debated whether to take a flight a few times too but driving to Kerry always wins out. Either I pay 30-40 quid for taxi from the suburb I live in to airport or use the longterm carpark at DUB which you have to add 30 mins to allow time waiting for shuttle bus plus parking cost. Also while security processing times have much improved, I still allow myself 90 minutes before any flight to avoid stress of unforseen delays. You then need someone to collect you from KIR (20 minutes drive from where I stay in Kerry). All in all , it takes the same amount of time or longer. I can drive door to door in 3.5 hours if Adare isn't a nightmare.

If I only visited Kerry once or twice a year I'd maybe consider flying but as I fly to other destinations about 6 times a year, it would exceed my annual tolerance level of airport hassles/queues etc if I also started flying regularly to Kerry as well.

It's still a great and valuable service for Kerry though and long may it last.

Was there recently..... it had Dublin, Luton & Manchester going out between 1045hrs and 1120hrs..... queues were out the door. It seems everyone expects that 40 mins is enough and so everyone was in the queue........ it took me 25 minute just to clear security queue and I had no bag. I then had to queue again at the Board Gates. I would recommend if you are using Kerry - get there at least 90-100 mins in advance. It's a changed place these days.... a number of Ryanair flights now clash on certain days and so you can expect to be queuing.

I would disagree with your claim of redicolousness.

By scheduling flights in close proximity it can be a good use of resources.

Note important word, can.

Sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes it does.

Flight schedules have to consider the availability of slots of airports at the end destinations tòo so often Kerry (a quiet airport) will have to bend to whatever landing slots are available at much busier airports like Dublin, Stansted etc which is why some flights seem bunched together. Also for a small airport, it's not viable to have a full complement of staff from 5am to 11pm to enable spacing out of flights which is why they tend to depart in a narrower time frame that a core staff base will be available for.

Saying that, I can't see how KIR can offer many more new commercial flights within the small existing constraints of its current pre and post security waiting areas. Is expansion of the terminal even on the horizon? What is the max pax capacity of the current terminal? I believe it may see up to 400k pax this year which would be a record.

Below is what the airport website advises. While 2 hours seems excessive, especially if you are not checking in luggage, the "boarding gates close 30 minutes before departure" is standard at every airport so I'd give yourself 45 minutes if you have checked in online and have carry on luggage only.

Check-in

The check-in area at Kerry Airport is located in the main concourse. We recommend that passengers arrive at the airport at least 2 hours before the scheduled departure of their flight. Be advised that the Boarding Gates will close at 30 minutes before departure time and passengers may be refused boarding after this deadline as per your airline booking conditions

Don’t think regional airports like Kerry have much choice or say on departure times. I reckon they got to take what they given or else lose the flight.

An American route! Really takes away from the credibility of the rest of the article.

Would be nice to see more routes of any description though! Ryanair have announced a new sun route for Knock and 2 for Cork, so it's entirely plausible.

And haul their luggage onto the plane!

Seriously, this is promising news for KIR. My money is on Lanzarote as the sun route, as anecdotally that seems to be a very popular sun holiday with many that I know in Kerry. As they said routes plural ,I wonder would Emerald consider a couple of unserved UK provincial destinations? Edinburgh and Birmingham seem like obvious and viable choices.

Agreed they should've kept the sensationalism of a possible US flight out of the press release as its just pie in the sky speculation and what people will now focus on regardless of whether its a reality or not....

No subsidy, Ryanair run the service commercially.

The current one is basically the side of your average garden shed, so this will be a huge improvement.

Some media reporting on this. Great news for the airport! Hopefully we'll see quite a few new route announcements to complement this!

I guess it comes down to costs for the Airport and whether Ryanair will pay for the additional costs associated with opening at 5am for a 7am departure....

Lots of people very happy with the current times... I have met people going to concerts /matches etc and find an 11am suits them great. The 'loss' of the business people on the route seems to be taken up by Students / Families / Friends etc .. all happy to be getting up and down for €40 !!! I read somewhere that there are now more people using the flight than when it was operating as a PSO with Stobart..

My young lad uses it on weekend to come home and says that its 'nearly full' every Friday night and Monday morning....... but wouldn't pay the €90 /€100/ €120 return it cost on Stobart when they were on it.

No new routes for Kerry in the winter season press release. I had hoped for one Canary Island sun route (Knock got both Lanzarote and Tenerife for winter) as there had been talk earlier this year of an imminent sun route for KIR. Maybe we have to wait for Summer 2024?